THE THE PHYGITAL PHYGITAL ARTIFACT ARTIFACT
aa path path of of hyperlinks hyperlinks towards towards aa hybrid hybrid exploration exploration
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CONTACT
Author: Sophia Iatrou Tutors: Maria Goicoechea de Jorge, Natasa Lekkou Master’s Thesis 2019/2020 Máster Universitario en Comunicación Arquitectónica Polytechnic University of Madrid
ABOUT The book that you are holding is not a regular book, but a Complementary Phygital Book. According to the post- digital aesthetics, this project is associated to a hybrid of digital and analogue media. Based on the categorization that is being analyzed in the chapter In search for the phygital artifact, the characterization as a Complementary Phygital Project, derives from its dual existence between the physical and the digital world, where one phase complements the other. This means that an interdependency is created between the two forms and the one cannot exist without the other. Thus, some features of the Complementary Phygital Book can only be relieved through the digital layers and some important written information is only contained printed, in the following pages. This book escapes from the norms of a typical book which content exists only in its regular paper pages, but also includes content in extra digital layers that the user unlocks, using a mobile phone as a medium. In the complementary phygital book, every drawing works as a hyperlink that leads to another image, a video, or a website. All the above function with the help of the application Augmenta, which creates scannable AR activations. Therefore, to fully understand the project, you need 3 elements: the printed book a smartphone the application of Augmenta.
The Complementary Phygital Book does only exist as a combination of the above components, although the printed book by itself can still be readable and understandable.
From this point forward, every drawing can be scanned through the application of Augmenta. Once the application is activated, the camera can be targeted to a drawing and a new image appears. Moreover, to every image corresponds a link that can be found at the bottom of the screen, which directs to an external source providing extra, optional information, such as articles, interviews, and videos. For this thesis the free service of the application of Augmenta was used, which permits up to 50 scans per drawing and automatically expires after two weeks. The activation period will last from the 23rd of September until the 7th of October. Finally, In the appendix, at the end of the book, the digital version of each drawing and its corresponding link can be found. The video documentation of the experience of the book will be uploaded and shared in public.
Keywords physical, digital, artifact, phygital, e-artist, mixed reality, fusion
Resumen My thesis is about the phygital artifact on social media, focusing on Instagram as a platform that can be perceived as a new art gallery. The term “phygital� examines the hybrid state of an artifact that belongs to both worlds, existing with its own materiality physically, but at the same time is being subjected to a post-digitalization process, operating in a realm of pure imagination and endless possibilities. In other words, how the geometry, the plasticity, the texture as well as other characteristics of a physical object can escape the norms of reality. I will examine how young creators represent digitally their physical artifacts on Instagram, as they overpass the limits of a simple photo or video by experimenting with new three-Dimensional and Augmented Reality tools. I will investigate where a phygital art can be situated and exposed, starting from Instagram and continuing to other physical or digital spaces.
CONTENTS
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Abstract and Methodology....................................1-8
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The perception of art in the era of Internet ........9-16
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The narrative identity of the e-artist.................17-29
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The platform of Instagram as an artistic medium.......................................31-42
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The rise of mixed realities in the Post- Internet and Post- Digital era.......43-58
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In search for the phygital artifact....................59-88
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Where is the phygital artifact situated?.........89-104
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Conclusions..................................................105-118
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Works cited...................................................119- 124
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Appendix.....................................................125-140
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# 1
ABSTRACT AND METHODOLOGY
a brief overview 2
The following thesis is a personal investigation between the real world of books and the cyber-world of social media, especially Instagram. As an active user of Instagram from 2015, my interest for art, design and curation had me following numerous artistic profiles, museums, galleries and magazines. My interest focuses on the changing role of the craftsperson, his identity in social media and the existence of his or her artifact as a digital by-product. The platform of Instagram was used as an investigation tool, collecting, saving and curating online material, which led to fascinating cases related to the digitalized artifact and its presentation. In an era in which the human seems inseparable from his techno gadgets, the boundaries between the real life and the digital life start to coexist and coincide. Everything is literally at the tip of one’s fingers, as smartphones challenge and affect the everyday life. A life with numerous digital layers, in which everything is designed for the individual and especially for his or her online identity. “The image of the human
as a prosthetic being that expands its biology and mentality with layers of technology is both the image of the prehistoric emergence of the species with the first stone tools and the image of an inevitable future where the fleshy body is left behind” (Colomina, Wigley 75). Beyond the physical body, the human has started to look after and “nourish” his or her digital identity. For example, many are the cases where people spend real money on virtual avatars, like functional or cosmetic items.
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Norwegian retailer Carlings designed and sold digital-only garments
The majority of people started participating in social media, which took the form of a new expanded society that mimics the real one, although it has created its own special norms. The one or many online identities that one can create, has the ability to communicate and collaborate with others, constructing a new kind of reality. Social media refashions one’s self, but also reconstructs the physical space. In this day and age, the hybrid life between the real and the physical world is the new reality.
The first part of the thesis consists of the rise of the online artistic and design practices in social media and the new relationship that has started to establish between an artisan and its infinite crowd, in other words his or her followers. Moreover, it will be analyzed the new rise of “amateurization” in the field of art and design, where the self-design and selfpromotion has become an obligation. In this case, the Web 2.0 and its online, social infrastructure of participation and easy, user-generated content, made social media a motive and a tool for self-design. The second part of the thesis will analyze the phygital artifact, that is the digitalized form of an artisan’s artifact. In this post-digital and post-internet age, where the Internet brings more realness than illusion, powerful digital advances determine the design process, the artifact itself and the way it is communicated. The term “phygital”, accompanies the newage artifact, which exists in a hybrid phase, between a physical and a digital state, corresponding with the new normality of the transhuman, who combines the real world and the cyber world. Technologies like mixed realities, and especially Augmented Reality define the phygital experience and thus the “phygital object”, a new term that lately made its debut and lately has become viral through the platform of Instagram. The following thesis will analyze the new term of “phygital object”, as the “phygital artifact” of a young designer with technical and technological expertise. The phygital artifact is categorized in 3 groups, which vary within a spectrum of digital
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and physical phases. Depending on its phase, it can be found in a real or an imaginary environment, or in a combination of those two situations. However, through its imaginary, digital form it can reach a wider public without any physical constraint, or in Instagram terms, it can go viral. Except from Instagram, other places are mentioned where the phygital object is situated, such as typical exhibitions in a museum, specific online viewing rooms, unique websites, or even AR exhibitions, via one’s mobile screen. It is important to mention the personal perspective of the examples that will be given, which also becomes an observation about the negative side of social media. Supporting my arguments through theoretical research, the examples that will follow are personal selections from my Instagram feed, from Instagram accounts that I have chosen to follow and others that appeared later on through my research. As a consequence of how Instagram works, the majority of the examples are the viral cases of Instagram or the ones that a large institution chose to demonstrate. This means that a lot of artists, smaller institutions, or just unknown to me amateur designers who have an active digital footprint, are excluded. As a matter of fact, social platforms work with social algorithms, which are mathematical sets of rules specifying the priority of the online content. These algorithms order the user’s feed based on relevancy, rather than published time.
On social platforms like Facebook and Instagram,
people do not see what they actually want, but what the system has predicted that they want, through a history of preferences and mostly interaction. Social algorithms are constantly evolving and skip irrelevant content, or low- quality. Maria Christina Sega, the curator and creative researcher of the project The Wormhole, which will be analyzed in the last chapter of the book, mentions in her interview to the online magazine Medium :
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“Social Media is becoming more of a mirror room where you see your own beliefs and values being reflected through the algorithm. You have to spend a large amount of time looking for something different�. This phenomenon was described by the internet activist Eli Pariser as filter bubble, meaning the controlled information that one can receive by personalized and past researches. These data are used by algorithms to give information according to an assumption of what the user wants to see, which may effectively lead to cultural, political, and ideological bubbles.
The Wormhole VR website
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By all means, this is also a marketing strategy for the benefit of social networks, in order to push brands or individuals to pay a premium in order to be advertised. Like Juan Martin Prada underlies:“Of course, corporations like
Twitter or Facebook have been able to extract enormous economic benefits while serving as catalysts for all sorts of popular revolutions in dozens of places around the planet while the information capitalism they promote remained, however, almost always unquestioned.” (34)
Therefore, nowadays, in the belief of the Internet democracy and limitless exposure, it is evident that technology comes with a price. These unquestioned issues have been otherwise characterised as “The Black Box Society”, which describes a system of information that is controled by the government or a firm and not by the user (Pasquale 3).The mysterious mechanism of information capitalism make difficult the track of an information, its actual use and the repercussions that has to the user. However, lately the consumers of technology seem to understand the importance of its personal data and has srarted to demand more transparency and clear values .
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Finally, or to start with, the following Complementary Phygital Book does not offer an absolute knowledge, which would be impossible nowadays, but a curated context with a theoretical background, which invites for dialogue and participation. The goal of this thesis is to discuss and highlight contemporary topics about technology and social media and the way they influence the everyday online and offline life.
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# 9
THE PERCEPTION OF ART IN THE ERA OF INTERNET
Do YOU want to design yourself? 10
Long before the establishment of Internet and social media, many public or private institutions like museums and galleries served as the only medium through which an artist and his artwork could communicate to a wider public. The presentation of art to the public was a matter of collaboration between the artist and the museum. This collaboration continues to be an intensive relationship between the artist and the museum, which leads to a two- way process of creativeness and critique. Historically, the museum is a cultural space that collects, preserves and displays artworks from different historic times, while curators manage and interpret the exposition to a certain experience.
The role of the museums has changed in the last 200 years moving from a simple exposition and observation of artworks, to a growing participation of the artist in the curatorial and display processes. The artist not only took an active role in the curating area, but often the artwork itself was influenced by the exhibition logic, like the vitrine-type artworks of Damien Hirst in the nineties. The role of the new museum and the perception and experience of art has shifted in this era of hyper-information and mass expansion of capitalism. The relationship between the artist and the museum has expanded, adding the role of the visitor as a factor that determines the artistic and curatorial processes. The museum became a dynamic cultural institution, where participation and dialogue are priorities. The social participatory practices in the Web have challenged the communication and dialogue operations all-together. The dynamic of the transportation of media content from a 11
designer to a spectator has new participatory and collaborative characteristics. In the western societies, where the new updated participatory museum exists, the user co-produces and actively participates in the artwork, consequently affecting an art exhibition too. Under these circumstances the museum expands its role by offering dynamic and dialectic experiences. Therefore, the new museum remediates the graphics, the texts, the forms of the objects in the space and the spacial curation, in order for the user to feel immersed. Through different mobile mediums, the museum experience does not start and end with the physical presence of the visitor, but it is converted to a personalized experience. This collaborative interplay, has also impacted the role of the spectator. The perception of art for the spectator has changed, while he sits in front of the computer alone and focused. The online world can seduce or force an active participation, and departing from the role of consumer , he or she can become co-producer. Moreover, the borderline between individual viewer and the artist becomes blurry, as both can appear as self-producers of art. The global distribution platform of the internet has altered the traditional statistical relationship between image producers and image consumers. As it appears today, even more people
are interested in image production than image contemplation.
The collaboration and extended participation has become an inevitable result of the new technologies and the Internet. By that means, a new trend of “prosumerism” has made its appearance, where producer and consumer overlap. This term originally appeared in 1980, by Alvin Toffler, in his book The third wave. The term “prosumer”, describes the consumer who actively participates in the design and development process of a good. The contemporary consumer is more independent and demands more control and participation, by offering his or her own skills and creativity. 12
The customization blurs the line between production and consumption activities. On
the one hand, this effect has been considered as a new consumption activism, where the included role of the consumer diminishes the corporate power with a more Do-It-Yourself approach. Industries like 3D printing, or open source software communities offer new possibilities. On the other hand, the prosumer can still serve the corporate growing profit, with the mass customization leading to mass production of customized products. The appearance of social media boosted “prosumerism” with the rise of “influencers”. Brands and companies now actively track people with “social power”, which is reflected by the number of followers, creating a new marketing trend.
What is an influencer_Wired magazine
The role of the museum in the digital age will be further analyzed in the last chapter of this book. At this point, the focus is addressed to the creator, as an artist or designer of an artifact. Nowadays, who can be a creator and how his
or her role has changed in the last decades? 13
“Many artists had seen on the Internet the possibility of dissolving the concept of ‘art’ into the more general concept of ‘communication’, trying to escape from the predeterminations of institutional exhibition contexts and from a certain ‘pre-alienation’ of the meaning of creation within the parameters of ‘the artistic’.”
(Martin Prada, 20). New means for producing and distributing images have changed our understanding of art. The dominance of the Internet as the primary medium of global communication has expanded the limits of art coverage. Artists began to assert the autonomy of their art, using contemporary means of communication and social networking. These days, the exhibition of an artwork only in an institution seems insufficient and that explains the tendency of having an active online artistic identity. Therefore, the right communication of the artwork within a popular social platform can offer more possibilities and immediacy. The philosopher Boris Groys in his book Going Public, argues that, in the twentieth century, art shifted to a new era of artistic mass production, followed by the twenty-first century where artistic mass production increased, accompanied by mass art consumption. Groys, not only comments the “institutional freedom” (1560, Kindle edition) that brought the Web, but highlights the type of art that is now created by many creators for many creators. “Contemporary means of
communications and networks like Facebook, YouTube, Second Life, and Twitter give global populations the possibility to present their photos, videos, and texts in a way that cannot be distinguished from any post-Conceptual artwork, including time-based artworks. And that means that contemporary art has today become a mass cultural practice”. (1037, Kindle edition) 14
In this world of Internet liberty, the artist and designer distanced oneself from the restricted world of an institution and took over his or her self-promotion. In this environment of international online exposure and social media, the
spectator became an active co- producer and started to expand his role as another self-becoming artist and designer. As the theorist of contemporary art and visual culture Juan Martin Prada comments, the 21st century is characterized by an “amateurization”. He remarks how the individual does not possess the exclusive and absolute knowledge or artistic talent nowadays. In this condition, the art consumption changes from active to passive, opening new ways that favor publicly recognized opinions, skills, and knowledge.
“Today everybody is an artist, a writer, a curator, a designer... If Walter Benjamin thought the arrival of the printing press made everyone a critic, the arrival of the of social media makes everyone an author, an artist, a self- designer.[...] Everybody has the fantasy of being independent producer, self- employed in the permanent project of constructing oneself.” (Colomina, Wigley, 273)
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# 17
THE NARRATIVE IDENTITY OF THE E- ARTIST
the artist becomes the artwork 18
The on-line practices came to completely change our lives, promising private and unconditional freedom. The philosopher Javier Echeverría, in his book Los señores del aire: Telépolis y el tercer entorno (The lords of the air: Telepolis and the third environment), describes this new form of social organization as “Telépolis”. “Telepolis exists to
the extent that citizens interact at a distance, either directly or indirectly”( 2). The Telepolis, is a
new type of city that creates different realities. The prefix “tele”, at a distance, expresses the new contemporary activity such as tele-education or tele-work. The word “Polis”, which characterizes the body of citizens, expands the capacity of the Agora, the central public space of a city, in a geographical coverage that extends over the planet. Telepolis is a new city, a dynamic phenomenon with a larger geographical coverage, making the reality of civil life much more complex. In this new “Digital Agora”, each participant operates and develops a unique identity. Echeverría notes that the “telepolites” exist in this world under an identity based on codes, passwords and pseudonyms, where they communicate and create relationships with others. Although telecommunications allow us to communicate, social networks create a space that allows reactions with others. Over the last few years, the “Digital Agora” became even more apparent with the arrival of the Web 2.0, or Social Web, followed by Web 1.0, a more static read-only web. The Web 2.0 let the users interact with others and contribute to the web through different platforms, such as blogs, social media and video- streaming sites. However, as the technology advances, the Web 3.0, known as the Semantic Web, made its appearance, which shifted to Web 4.0 or the Ubiquitous Web. Finally, the latest researches will 19
lead to the Web 5.0 or Symbiotic Web, which will be based in the emotional interaction between human and computer. The Web changes rapidly and so does the relationship of the user with it. A new era of transhumans has been created, where only-interaction practices have been replaced with total fusion. Transhumanism is a term that explains the evolution of the human being with potentials that are based on the technological and science reliance. It is evident that the technological gadgets play a significant role in the shape and transformation of the human. By these means, the term homo-cellular, by Beatriz Colomina and Mark Wigley, in their book, Are we human? Notes on an archaeology of design, seems adequate. The cell-phone, and especially the smart-phone, has become an essential part of our everyday life, and has changed a lot of our habits and actions. As they express: “The device is no longer an accessory
to human life, but a basic of a new kind of life.� (Colomina, Wigley, 239)
The movie HER presents a reaistic tech future article from businessinsider
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The cell phone and the advanced applications that came along have changed our communicative ways with others, causing a physical, personal and social relocation. The cell phone, or better placed, the smartphone, has given a mobility to the web user, who actively participates on social media. As a consequence, the user is invited to a constant personal design that continuously changes just like the periodic updates of a gadget’s software.
“This strange mirror logic finds its uncanny echo in the selfie, […] literally using the cell phone as a mirror. This cult of self-surveillance is misunderstood as narcissism, but is more like a desperate attempt to position oneself that is now expanded by personal drones that video people from the air by following their phone” (Colomina, Wigley, 250)
Our body and mind expand by the use of the smartphone, which offers the possibility to construct a version “of you, of what is the real you for that world” (Colomina, Wigley, 251). The “you” for “that world” is your e-self, the construction of your representation. The e-shelf is expressed by social media tools, where images, texts, stickers, emojis, gifs, filters, comments and posts are offered to shape this kind of avatar. Those mentioned elements are also the tools for the avatar to narrate his own personal story. “Social media is
not only a tool for self- design.
Self- design has become media. 21
This designing self is not an independent inventive subject or collective. It is an always fragile work-in-progress, sacrificing all privacy to produce dib data in return for a new illusion of independence.” (Colomina, Wigley, 273) Like everyone else, also the artist is influenced and forced to have his digital footprint on social media, creating his or her own e-persona. The post-artist is not a singular individual, but rather one who can become or embody different identities. The digital-self and the mediated digital-artist often coincide, making the e-persona and the e-artist one reference. The e-artist has the ability to express his or her personal world, by creating personal stories. This personal narrations, by being recorded and shared to the public, enable a personal
“re-consideration” and “re-fashion” of oneself. As a consequence, the public exposure can affect not only the artist/ designer, but also the artwork.
Cat Yu, graphic design
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The French philosopher Jean Paul Gustave Ricoeur, wrote about “re-fashion” and “re-consideration” of oneself, as the self-knowledge through the relation of one with the world and through interaction with them. The argument of Ricoeur about selfhood was the intention of explaining oneself through narration, a personal testimony among testimonies of other people. The narration, a synthesis of heterogeneous components which tries to obtain configuration and succession, is not only worth written, but it must be read and reach an audience. Most importantly, Ricoeur refers to the formation of the narrative identity: “It is through
imaginative variations on our own ego that we attempt to reach a narrative understanding of ourselves, the only one that escapes the apparent alternative between pure change and absolute identity. Between the two lies the narrative identity.” (22)
Narration consists of one of the most important elements of our social life and social memory. Nowadays, social media has created new environments where innovative communication tools are being introduced and challenge the way people tell stories. In the age of the construction of a represented self, what is the narrative identity of a young artist who wants to expose, communicate, and share his artwork digitally to an extended public? The e-artist uses media and technology as a selfforming practice. His or her presence among others can be translated to a digital representation through simple posts, text, selfies or selfie videos. On the one hand, in the platform of Instagram the artists may decide to demonstrate a pure portfolio of their artwork, consisting of images and videos. On the other hand, many will decide to show the creative life and the process behind an artwork. The latest are actively
participating in a performative and interactive relation with the public. While some artists separate the professional from the personal account, others have both in one. In such cases, the professional artistic accounts become more personal by demonstrating the artist’s face and general lifestyle. For example, the official Instagram account of the famous artist , is a combination of photos of his artwork, and other photos with him as protagonist. In a sequence of photos in which it appears only a painting, next to other photos that include the artist’s face, the ones that gain more likes belong to the second category. Moreover, the appreciation of the public increases dramatically in his videos, whenever he appears drawing, or answering questions of the public, or doing any other kind of performance.
Damien Hirst, “The undeniable power of pink!!!”, Instagram Post, 2020
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It’s amazing to be working with Snapchat on this totally mega spin art lens and making it possible for millions of people to make their own spin paintings right from their phones.�...more
25 Damien Hirst, Spin Painting, colaboration with Snapchat Instagram Post, 2020
Additionally, as an example of the type of art that invites to an online participation it is of great interest to mention the collaboration of Damien Hirst with the company of Snapchat and the creation of an AR artistic project. Through a specific application, the user can create a personal artwork that is based on Hirst’s Spin Painting series in 1994 while living in Berlin. The artist’s post mentions:
All these communication elements can be considered as new Foucauldian technologies of the self, based on the exploration and on the attempt to make sense of the self. The social media narratives contributeto the formation of the artist’s identity, not only by exhibiting his artwork, but also by personally narrating and interpreting it. In this case, a remediated self appears, where performance accompanies and intensifies the narration of the artist and the artifact. Social media has offered new “technologies of self”, described by Foucault as “the policing process of monitoring one’s behavior”, through “knowing one’s self”. In this modern
age, the self-narration in the digital world works as a mirror, a digital diary, where one not only performs, but also knows one self. The digital self- narration as a public spectacle, permits the consideration and fashioning of the artist. The formation of the identity of the e-artist on a social platform is an ongoing process that is continuously reshaped and dependent on the new technologies, as well as on the received feedback of the public. 26
These public self-forming practices, may lead to “the subjection to the public gaze and the public judgment” (118), as Foucault notes in the book Technologies of the self. In the era of constant exposure and digital reputation, a new “attention economy” is produced, therefore the practices on social media can contain the risk of capitalization of one’s self. In other words, the digital identity can be promoted as subject to attract the attention and therefore become a by-product to promote other products. An example of that case is the influencer, the type of internet celebrity who tries to promote a product through himself or herself. The supposed development of hyper-individuality that favors Twitter, Facebook or Instagram ends up being subjugated by “technological despotism[...]a techno-social
order characterized by the generation of strong dependencies on the new technological systems and devices”(Martin Prada, 26). On the social web, not only famous, but also amateur producers circulate their creations, free of charge, with the aim of achieving greater dissemination.
“The system of information is paradoxically contrary to that of traditional capitalism, in which value was based on scarcity, while the value of information and human interaction products increases with their diffusion”(Martin Prada, 52). Certainly, in the age where everything is reachable anywhere and anytime, the most profitable product is the one that reaches rapidly a wider public and continues to expand its influence in time.
The artist/ designer of an artifact, becomes a performer in front of a divine crowd. The sociologist Erving Goffman developed the concept of dramaturgy, where people are performers in everyday life, delivering specific acts according to the occasion. The performance depends on the message and the intended audience. While there are different aspects of a persona that are presented, also the artist is exposing 27
only a specific part of his or herself. An interesting example of online self-presentation through artistic exploration is that of the performe , who presented herself as a semi-fictional character in order to underline the use of Instagram as a branding platform. The project Excellencies and Perfection ended in 2016, leaving the viewer uncertain about the perception of reality and fiction. In a CNN’s article about her performance, Ulman comments:
“Now the problem is that everyone is required to be a celebrity. (Before) only people in the arts or entertainment industry were required to have to deal with certain things, and now it’s required of everyone to learn these skills of (being) a minor celebrity -- the way they look, the way they are perceived — which is kind of dangerous.”
Amalia Ulman, Excellences & Perfections, 2014 (detail). Performance: Instagram. 28
As Boris Groys highlights: “The modern subject
now has a new obligation: the obligation to selfdesign, an aesthetic presentation as ethical subject.” (Groys, 212, Kindle edition). Everyone who
wants to participate in the international political agora, must create an individualized public persona, where it can be noticed a shift of interest on the public figure, rather than the public artwork, in other words, the artist becomes the artwork. Therefore, the narrative identity of the artist becomes even more important. The artwork alone as a medium of communication is not sufficient, and especially in the field of social media. By participating in this digital environment, the artist is compelled to expose his face, his daily actions, his beliefs, his style of life, in a more representative way. He or she creates a persona, that through social media performs on a screen, for an absent, divine audience, with the responsibility to give a satisfying narration, in order to maintain or amplify the circle of followers. The appearance of the artist close to the artwork creates a kind of intimacy which consequently responds in the new demanding attention engagement that is created in social media. Especially the practice of selfie is the manifestation of self- promotion, “ ‘a mode of conversation, inherently
contextual and often ephemeral’ proves to be the perfect marketing vehicle for art museums, institutions caught up in the Like economy and highly dependent on visitor ratings and participation.” (Lovink, 99- 100). Therefore, like the cultural institutions benefit from visitor’s use of social media, so the artist ensures his or her autonomy by the representation and promotions of his or her digital persona. Especially in platforms based on photo circulation, just like Instagram, the artist’s depiction aside the artifact, works as another artistic apparatus. The represented self is not a fixed self, but an exchanged self that documents “the now”. 29
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# 31
THE PLATFORM OF INSTAGRAM AS AN ARTISTIC MEDIUM
doing it for the ‘gram 32
One of the most powerful social and interactive platforms that is analyzed in this thesis, is Instagram, which has changed greatly over the years. Instagram, among all the social platforms, is a photo and video-sharing social service with a simple and easy-to-use interface. It was created by Kevin Systorm and Mike Krieger in 2010 and by May 2019, it counts more than 1 billions users. Initially, Instagram was meant to be a location-based, check-in app, competing with Foursquare, a local-search and discovery mobile app. It was first launched as Burbn, and its use was to locate and share details for the best bourbon locations. The app could not compete with the already existing apps of this type, so the creators focused more on the photos, comments and optional check-in. Its success is based on the social experience that offers and the challenging game of changing likes and popularity (Leaver, Highfiend, Abidin, 9, Kindle Edition).
A lot of features and tools have made Instagram a powerful application, used by a lot of people in order to represent their lives. The user of Instagram creates a unique aesthetic of his or her personal profile, which is well-curated and studied. On the contrary, another type of communication tool was developed by Instagram, the Stories, which appeared in 2015 in order to compete the Snapchat application and its success. Instagram’s stories encourage the user to a record of every day and ephemeral captures. In continuation, this captures can be remediated, by specific aesthetic filters. 33
Instagram created a new potential narrative language of photos between different cultures and countries. It developed a natural facilitative language which enables people to tell about themselves and understand others. This social app has been converted to a new narration media with specific features, such as photos accompanied by a text, large videos with the form of IGTV and stories that last for 24 hours—or that can be saved in a specific section of the account. “Offering
different ways of vernacular, creative expression, including emoji- and GIF-annotations and live content, has meant that the Stories aesthetic has also turned up as a storytelling device in other media�(Leaver, Highfiend, Abidin, 63, Kindle Edition).
The latest addition was the arrival of the face effects and filters, where augmented reality became part of the daily life and a new way of representation. Mobile phones and their digital cameras are a new way of re-mediation as they work like mirrors, reflecting the user. The act of taking pictures and videos and then share them, comes with the expectation of the right reaction. A new era of selfportraiture has begun, where the printed album of an old era has become an individual photo gallery in the digital world. And now these intimate moments do not remain only among the family environment, but are shared with an unknown public, that particular category of intimate strangers that emerge in these social media interactions.
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Instagram posts and later on stories, were the features that boosted the popularity of that visual social sharing platform. In the book La cultura digital(The Digital culture), the authors Amparo Lasén and Héctor Puente comment on digital photography as a powerful tool that carries out the practice of self-presentation and self-registration. “Digital self-
portraits place us in a triple position characterized by a complex game of gestures and looks, since we are at the same time the person who photographs, the one who poses and the one who puts himself in the place of others, who will see those images” (Lasén, Bridge, 31). In all types of social networks, each on a different scale, there is an ability to pose, photograph, select, retouch, show and share self-portraits. Especially for the platform of Instagram, there are numerous of articles, books and videos which teach specific posing techniques for a succesful photo.
New devices, computers, mobiles and applications just like Instagram, capture the performer’s body in a specific and measured way. The presence among the others becomes other texts, sounds and images, as a reaction 35
and feedback. “Therefore, numerous interactions,
conversations, gestures, impressions that were once ephemeral and volatile, inscribed in our memories, now acquire a digital materiality that can be measured, counted, reviewed, shared and compared” (Lasén, Bridge, 17). Now the relationship between one online performer and the audience is measured with likes, other’s reactions, messages and the number of followers. Especially the application of Instagram, has become an “aesthetic visual communication medium” (Manovich, 41). While it started as a platform of
producing photos on the go, in the real world, in the real time, in a few years it has been converted to a platform where nothing is in real-time but everything is being converted and recomposed. The platform is offering the possibility of displaying a recorded event or going live in an instant moment. The term of the word Instagram suggests speed and fast action. However, Manovich highlights that “the visually sophisticated global youth and many members of global creative class use it today in a completely opposite way. Instagramism needs
slowness, craftsmanship, and attention to the tiniest details”(95).
In this environment, many artists, especially young ones, chose Instagram to craft a socially-engaging gallery of their art so viewers can follow along. Every story has a storyteller and audience. It is noticed that the artist uses the Instagram stories as a medium for narrating and exposing the artifact and, more importantly, narrating the process of the creation. Posts,
stories and lives work as a medium to present the working procedure of an artifact. The Instagram live also offers instant interactivity, where the follower can comment or like a person’s live story.
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The attempt at connection with an infinite public is being traced in a post of the Spanish artist Almudena Lobera. In her post, it is depicted a print screen of a message that Instagram proposes to certain accounts that are registered as “business”, rather than personal. “As a company on Instagram, you can promote this publication and reach thousands of people”, followed by the option to tap “Promote”. Her post is accompanied by the hashtag, #reachthousandofpeoples and as a background there is a woman wearing blinkers. This post does not only imply Instagram’s capitalistic policy, but also works as the artist’s personal disclosure. This type of communication, through the exposure of the application’s economy,creates an allied relationship between the artist and the follower.
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Instagram account of Almudena Lobera
Another attribute of the Instagram’s user experience design, is the relationship that can occur between the users. This impulse of digital intimacy is a new phenomenon that is based on the self-expression practices that have been mentioned above. In this regard, it is appropriate to bring up the concept of “extimacy” developed by the Argentinean anthropologist Paula Sibilia in her essential work Intimacy as a spectacle. The psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan introduced first in 1960 the term “extimacy”, as the identity between the dual terms of the outside and the deepest inside, the exterior and the most interior of the psyche, the outer world and the inner world of the subject. All expressions of the duality exteriorityintimacy would be hypothetically replaceable by the notion of extimacy, which precisely joins ex-teriority with in-timacy.In her book, Paula Sibilia speaks about the new digital democracy and the new era of the exposure of the amateurs and underlines: “This new phenomenon embodies an unprecedented and complex mixture of these two apparently contradictory aspects. On the one hand, the celebrated ‘explosion of
creativity’, which arises from an extraordinary ‘democratization’ of the media, which led to an ‘explosion of productivity and innovation’”(13). She describes a “new festival of private lives” as a new way of self-construction: “The daily confessions are there,
in words and images, at the disposal of anyone who wants to snoop around; all it takes is a click and, in fact, we all tend to give that click.” (32)
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The artist’s “confession” is the exposure of the process of making the artwork. The “behind the scene” records create an intimacy of getting to know better the artist, the working space and the special techniques. By monitoring the frequent artistic records, the follower feels closer to the artist, increasing also the participatory feeling. “The attention
economy is primarily visual today, and Instagram remains synonymous with the visual zeitgeist” (Leaver, Highfiend, Abidin, 216, Kindle Edition). Nowadays,
the revelation of the process is much more important and influential than the finished project. An example for this occasion is the online social practices of the multidisciplinary architect and artist . The viewer can discover a detailed narration in her profile, in the section of “suggested highlights”, the once ephemeral stories that are now permanently saved in the profile. This digital narration consists of explanatory videos of some of her artifacts, especially a series of a project named Breeding. Moreover, many of her posts are followed by a personal text that is not only about her artwork, but also a personal confession about herself. These “notes to self” create an incredible intimacy between Maria Mallo and her almost 3000 followers.
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Instagram account of Maria Mallo Zurdo
As the limits between personal and social life gets more blurry, a public intimacy is being overexposed. In the case of the artist and the public, it is examined the direct relationship between them, as well as the the relation of the spectator with the artifact The appearance of the “followers” gradually established a new and more intimate relationship, which consequently affected the artwork, through the new communication tools that Instagram and any other social platform offered. Depending on the interaction and the viewer’s engagement, it is argued that the artifact or the making
process can change and adjust to the preferences of the majority of the viewers. The spectator can openly give his opinion with the use of specific interactive Instagram tools, such as Instagram lives, Q&As, Polls, Emoji sliders or embedded links to Instagram Stories, where one can “Swipe up” and get extended content.
“Doing it for the ’gram, or curating lives to ensuring they are ‘Insta-worthy’, has seen Instagram become synonymous with the world around us, just as Google has become the verb for searching for information online” (Leaver, Highfiend,
Abidin, 213, Kindle Edition). Instagram as a visualization medium has changed a lot through the years. However, it continues to grow to a powerful social platform, as it succeeds to correspond to the modern requirments. Especially in the field of art, many famous magazines refer to the artists not only by their name, but also by their Instagram account. In online articles of magazines such as Dazed Beauty, IGant ++ , the name of the artist is usually followed by an embedded link that leads to his or her professional Instagram account. That phenomenon increases the value of Instagram’s social platform, converting it to a powerful medium of communication through aesthetics.
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# 43
THE RISE OF MIXED REALITIES IN THE POST- INTERNET AND POST- DIGITAL ERA
hyperreal and hypermedium 44
Up to this point, it has been illustrated the relationship of the artist with the technology and the media. The next chapter will examine the specific artistic frame of reference that was created and affected by these two contemporary factors and the new digital design tools that remodel the artifact. The adaption of smartphones and social media in the daily life created new possibilities in the world of art, offering pioneering design tools and an expanded online viewership and exposure. Contemporary art responded to these new conditions, where online presentation became of the utmost importance. Therefore, the expansion of the use of
the network and its technologies led to the rise of a new aesthetic era, that shifted from “net-art” to the “post-internet”, where online and offline practices blend uniquely. The “post-internet” refers to a phase where the Internet has become omnipresent, it means that connectivity is a central element of the daily life and inherent in our culture. Thus, the term “post-internet” art does not describe the overpassing of the Net age, but the crossover between the online and offline practices. The “Net art” refers to the use of Internet as the medium, where the art cannot be experienced in any other way. On the contrary, “post- internet art” makes
the leap from real to fake, from physical to digital, a real dissolution between these two phases.
The term “post-internet” was first linked with the artist, curator and critic and, in continuation, it was developed by the author Gene McHugh in 2010. In his blog and later book, Post Internet, notes on the internet and art, attempts to define this vague term describing it as: 45
“when the Internet is less a novelty and more a banality. Perhaps this is closer to what Guthrie Lonergan described as ‘Internet Aware’–or when the photo of the art object is more widely dispersed [&] viewed than the object itself”. For Marisa Olson, the term refers to any kind of art that is created after the use of Internet and is created by the excessive computer use. The post-internet objects
and images have been developed with the concern of their materiality and their various methods of representation as well as the interplay between them.
Marisa’s Olson essay about post- internet art
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One of the artists of this evolutionary movement, , in his essay “The Image Object Post- Internet”, discusses the phenomenon of the easily sharing, production, and reproduction of the things, due to the improved and personalized technology advances. “First, nothing
is in a fixed state: i.e., everything is anything else, whether because any object is capable of becoming another type of object or because an object already exists in flux between multiple instantiations” (2). Art often works not only with the things themselves but with the images of things and their possibiliies.
Artie Vierkant Monday 8 October 2018 11:13AM, 2019, UV print on aluminum composite panel, 65 x 59 in.
The visual relationship between the representation and the represented started when the objects of cultural heritage were converted from analogue to digital form. The digital form escapes from any temporal or spacial boundaries. In the previous years, the representation of the three-dimensional objects were represented as two-dimensional through a mediation process of an electronic viewing device, such as computer screens, mobiles phones, e-books and many more. Now the three-dimensional objects appear more realistic, excelling the mixture of digital and real world. In fact, it becomes more captivating the representation of the object than the digital object itself.
Case in point, by the twentieth century, art such as abstract painting, no longer sought to represent reality, to comment on, to refer to, to imitate, but invited viewers to attend to it as a physical object in its own right. Digital media conflates these perspectives: objects are both representational and incarnate, the object as it never existed, a simulation or hyperrealization.
“With the born digital, the object may not be what the viewer interacts with, but the data structure itself performing the imaginative abstract, taking the rough material of life, refashioning it in fresh forms, absolutely indifferent to the fact of what is true or natural or real. It is both operator and operand, original and copy, code and surface, weaving itself into the very fabric of the material world.� (Shreibman, 14) As the digital technology develops ,new powerful representation tools make their appearance. The physical qualities of an artifact, like sensorial feeling, existence in space, scale and relation with the body,can be augmented by other digital qualities. Performance, interactivity, connectivity and visual aesthetics are some digital qualities that emerge with the physical artifact, empowering its digital presence. The digital artifact has the potential to become a grotesque, strange, fantastic, bizarre artwork. Eventually, the original artwork as the source, and the remediated digital copies of the art as its representation, remain in a constant relation and work in a coherent way. 48
As Juan Martin Prada writes in his essay “The digital condition of the image”, nowadays the image it is not seen, it is visualized through a monitor. The digital tasks invite to a representation of the real world, a digitalized version of it, decomposing its physical attributes by transforming, recomposing and representing them. The temporality of the digital artwork expands in the online world, as it is exposed to a monitor and to an endless possibility of modification. Young artists and designers use media according to their own particular material aesthetics, either to create analogue material artifacts, or digital ones, or a mixture of both. It is of high importance to also mention the term “postdigital aesthetics”, which is closely connected to the above mentioned term of post-internet art. Some theorists, like the author , link the term post-digital with the revival of the old media and the retro. However, this study
does not focus merely on the revival of the older media technologies, like the manual processes of a physical artifact, but on the re-application of them. The intention is to discuss the dialogue between older techniques with digital technologies. It is due to the fact that in the present times, the fascination with the technical innovation has become historical and the term post- digital describes the messy state of media, arts and design after the digitization, where the distinction between old
and new media is insignificant.
“The post digital is not purely a digital formation or artifact —it can also be the concepts, networks and frameworks of digitality that are represented (e.g. voxels, glitch, off- internet media, neo-analogue, non-digital media, post internet art)” (Berry, Dieter, 44). The post-digital aesthetics embed the digital in the objects, images and structures of the everyday life and the relation of the 49
user with them. The viewing medium captures and
demonstrates the digital object and becomes of lesser importance. Now, the traditional strong link between the identity of an art object and its medium dissolves. The new digital tools can easily mimic reality, so the intervention of a digital medium is barely noticeable. The digital devices can capture, remediate of recreate the reality. A new world of simulation with technologically generated information is now available at any time. The Spanish sociologist Manuel Castells describes the “culture of real virtuality” as follows: “Reality itself
(that is the symbolic experience/ the material of the people) is entirely captured, fully immersed in a composition of images in a virtual world of make-believe, in which appearances are not just communication screen experience, but become the experience.” (395). On this wise, the virtual
experiences are as real as the physical ones, as they cause real emotional and biological responses. In this transition of our bodies to the digital worlds, the artifacts are also being transported in the digital world. The post-digital era, sets the digital technologies and the internet as something incorporated into the everyday life, in an attempt to explore and understand the uncanny aesthetics of the computer age.
image on screen by symmetrysymptom. tumblr
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Over the last few years, there is a noticeable tendency for handicraft artists who experiment with digital technologies. Especially young artists who belong to the generation Y and generation Z, have mastered new technology and have become acquainted with blending their craft with representational forms. With the radical technological progress, many of the new artists that entered the Web, introduced new digital tools that reshaped and transformed the crafts. Therefore, the
e-artists begun to experiment, creating post-digital artifacts. However, in this over-digitalized times, what is the relation of a digital artifact with its archetype?
As
states in his book, The Craftsman,
“all skills, even the most abstract, begin as bodily practices; second, that technical understanding develops through the powers of imagination” (10). In this situation, the excellent use of digital tools help artisans expand the possibilities of their own handcrafts and explore new qualities, even imaginary ones. Especially for small scale artifacts, the manual process still seems of high importance for the designer. “It has seemed that touch delivers
invasive, ‘unbounded’ data, whereas the eye supplies images that are contained in a frame.” (152)
For crafts like, accessories, ceramics, fashion, and more, the texture and the form are elements that can be better understood only in the physical world. However, this does not seem of the same importance for the spectator or potential art buyer. A new era begun and continues to evolve,
where the digital representation seems sufficient, especially when the advanced digital tools make the
post-artifact look like (almost) real, embedding it in the environment or in the human body. Nowadays, the re-mediation of the physical artifact and the creation of its digital existence seem obligatory. The digitalization of a physical artifact has amplified its potentials, making it possible to exist in a hybrid state, a combination of the real and the representation of it. Because of the Web practices, artists add extra features in their “still-life” artifacts and take advantage of the expanded viewership that the online social world offers. The re- mediated artifact becomes participatory and despite its imaginary added features, it still looks like the real, source manual artifact. Under a dual existence, the “real” artifact and the re- mediated “imaginary” one, are viewed as one. In this hybrid state, it is found the phygital artifact, a term which will be analyzed further in the following chapter. One of the greatest technological innovations that is used as a design tool is the “Mixed reality”, which will be examined as a key element that forms the phygital artifact. Mixed realities (MR) merges both realms, real and virtual, into a new environment. In the book Mixed Reality in Architecture, Design & Construction, the editors Xiangyu Wang and Marc Aurel Schnabel define the spectrum of mixed realities, where between the absolute real and the absolute virtual, exist the following realms: 1. Real Reality, 2. Amplified Reality, 3. Augmented Reality, 4. Mediated Reality, 5. Augmented Virtuality, 6. Virtualized Reality and 7 Virtual Reality.
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These realities are common types of simulating the real world and are used not only in 3D design programs but also in daily social media applications. Although the design is made by experts, now everyone can easily exercise these kinds of operations. This is possible thanks to the creation of simple and easy to use interfaces, which are included in the different mediums. For instance, filters, moving stickers, 3D objects and many more can be enjoyed by one’s smartphone.
Real Reality stands for the real world, what it is perceived as physical existence in one’s environment. Nowadays, as other realms have made their appearance, the Real Reality had been redefined and stands as another category among others. Amplified Reality is a type or reality that refines and enriched the properties of a physical object. Although it seems similar to Augmented Reality, its more focused on how the perceived reality is available to the user and not how the user perceives reality. In the case of Augmented Reality, the perceived real environment is enhanced with virtual elements which permit interaction and sometimes collaboration in real time. Mediated Reality as described by Wang and Aurel Schnabel is “the general concept of artificial modification of human perception by re-synthesising the light that reaches the eye of a user.” (8). In this realm elements can be introduced or removed from a scenery, diminishing reality. Augmented Virtuality happens when real world elements are being represented in the virtual world in real time. The difference between Augmented Reality and Augmented Virtuality relies on the user’s interaction, that is to say, if the interaction happens in the real world it is considered augmented reality, on the contrary if it happens in the virtual world it is considered Augmented Virtuality. However, the term Augmented Reality is commonly used for both cases. Virtualised Reality is a virtual realm and refers to the different viewpoints of a real event, in other words how the viewer can change its position from one camera to another and view a live or recorded event. Finally, Virtual Reality refers completely to the virtual world, where a simulated environment is being designed with computer technology. 53
This field knows an ever-growing expansion, making more and more dream-like features become reality. The philosopher Jean Baudrillard in his books Simulacra and Simulation argues that: “Simulation is no longer that of
a territory, a referential being, or a substance. It is the generation by models of a real without origin or reality: a hyperreal”(1).
The phygital artifact can be observed as a hypermedium as it contains various linked interactive elements. Here it is necessary to mention the study of Jay David Bolter and Richard Grusin on their book, Remediation, understanding new media, as they offer a theory of mediation for our digital age, where new media technology does not simply mean inventing new software, but rather refashioning older networks. In the chapter The logic of Hypermediacy, the authors mention the term
“hypermedia” as new interactive applications that combine random free access and the use of multiple media. They can be seen as a hyperbole, an exaggeration that was born from the marriage of TV and computer technologies.
“Its raw ingredients are images, sound, text, animation and video, which can be brought together in any combination. It is a medium that offers ‘random access’; it has no physical beginning, middle, or end” (Bolter, Grusin, 31).
In this particular thesis, the older, raw media is
considered the physical artifact and the remediated version of it, its digital representation. In the book, the
term Remediation is defined as a logic by which new media refashion prior media forms. By that means, the artifacts can be remediated and expressed in a new digital form by a variety of high technological media, such as 3D and AR tools.
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The authors point out that: “The very act of
remediation, however, ensures that the older medium cannot be entirely effaced; the new medium remains dependent on the older one in acknowledged or unacknowledged ways” (47).
By these terms, the physical artifact and the digital artifact are in a constant relation and interaction. It is clearer than ever, that the simulation is producing and reproducing the real in order to store it in a hyperspace and augment its elements. The distinction between
the real and the imaginary has vanished, as the one sustains the other and vice versa. The difference is not so apparent between the two states and simulation threatens the difference between the true and the false, the real and the imaginary. The hybrid space where physical and digital components coexist is called Mixed Environment. In Mixed Environments the physical and digital components can interact and considered as a united total. In the present case, Augmented Reality (AR) is examined as a key-factor for the physical artifact. The definition of it is given by Wang and Schnabe , “AR adds virtual elements to the
perceived reality and allows an interaction in a real world environment while a user receives additional visual computer-generated or modelled information to support the task at hand.”(7) The AR tool plays a significant role not only for the fusion between real and digital elements, but also about experiences. “There are two ways to reduce this distance and so to heighten the sense of immediacy: either the viewer can pass through the window into the represented world, or the objects of representation can come up to or even through the window and surround the viewer” (Bolter, Grusin, 235). The AR belongs to this second way, as the objects of representation can be seen through specific mediums, without the intervention of heavy equipment.
PokĂŠmon Go, a free smartphone AR game
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Nowadays, the smartphone has become the easiest and most accessible instrument, creating a window that works as an immediate medium for the new mixed environment. There are many specialized applications that can be downloaded in one’s smartphone, where AR features can be practiced and transform a typical space. However, in this day and age, this feature can also be found in many social media applications. Particularly, the social networking service of Instagram has inserted Augmented Reality features that can be easily used by any smartphone.
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AR filter where you can add any media you like, by Jenny Yoo
The Instagram Augmented Reality effects can be found either by clicking on an Instagram Story that features it, or directly in the creator’s Instagram profile. The viewer can use an AR filter that brings the phygital artifact to the real space through the screen of one’s smartphone. Therefore, the screen of a smartphone can create a mixed environment in one’s personal space.
AR filter, The matter, by omega.c
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# 59
IN SEARCH FOR THE PHYGITAL ARTIFACT
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In today’s increasing mixed environments, the fusion of physical and digital existence in humans has a direct sequence to the objects too. Digital layers overlap in the physical world and correspondingly the digital world is appropriating the aesthetics of the real world. The old visualization of blue color or the visualization of the binary code of the digital aesthetics belongs to the past. The human and his digital persona
become a transhuman and eventually the physical object and its digital presence become a phygital object. The phygital object as a “post-internet” and “postdigital” product, has its own unique aesthetics that will be analyzed in this chapter.
The term phygital appeared at the beginning of the twenty-first century to describe the presence of the same person in both the physical and digital world. More specifically, the term was introduced in 2007 by Chris Weils, a CEO of a Brand Experience Company named Momentum. The neologism is the combinations of the two words, physical and digital, in one, phy-gital. When people massively adopted mobile online communication, the hyper-connectivity became easier. As mentioned before, the smartphone is one of the mediums that represent the union of the physical and digital world, since its mobility allows the access to the digital world at any place and in time. Aside from the smartphone, many smart objects create phygital experiences, as they permit interaction with people and with other objects as well. Until now, phygital practices used mostly for the marketing, branding, touristic, educational and gaming sector. As an example, the video game Guitar Hero, with its latest release in 2015, includes a physical guitar which exists and interacts in both worlds. As far as phygital marketing is concerned, specific strategies are being created from retailers and marketers that include three elements: 1. Immediacy, 2. Immersion, 3. Interaction. Smart objects that exist in the physical shop, like mirrors or touch screen makes the shopping experience more pleasant 61
and serves the brand strategy. For example, the Nike’s House Of Innovation 000 (2016) is a store that was designed in order to work in collaboration with the Nike’s application. Many features of the application, like “Instant Checkout”, “Shop the Look” and “Scan to Try”, were introduced in a design form into the physical space. From an article about this project, the senior director of service and experiences, Sean Madden, mentions: “The store has been designed with the understanding that the app will be a big part of it. It is in the DNA of this building [and] more features will come over time.”
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Lately, this complementary experience is located not only in public, well-designed spaces, but also in one’s home. For example, the design and research lab SPACE10, sponsored by the famous Sweden company IKEA, try to bring a new perspective in the design of private life. Through ongoing digital experiments and the usage of AR, the SPACE’S10 experiment aims to explore how the home can be more sustainable, enjoyable and fun. More specifically, the company collaborated with design studios and tech experts in order to produce spacial effects. Some of them are a virtual elephant measuring a space, a light bulb that alerts about the air pollution, a virtual lamp where someone can test the light effect in the space before a purchase, the conversion of an interior space into a musical instrument, the visualization of the music waves of a speaker and many more.
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In this category of private phygital experience is relevant to mention the latest collaboration of MAC cosmetics with Instagram, which designed an AR filter as a new branding strategy. The company used Instagram’s #VirtualTryOn Shopping Feature, powered by Spark AR, offering a variety of lipstick shades as a filter. This marketing strategy breaks spatial and time restrictions, where someone can try a cosmetic and instantly purchase it.
The “Phygitalism” entered the world of art, making the phygital artifact something new and its meaning not well-defined. However, this study will try to analyze and ascertain which attributes characterize an artwork as phygital.
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Artwork by Simon Kaempfer
A graphic design company named Over, mentions the phygital objects as a tendency of 2020. In their article, it is mentioned: “Movies and games have accelerated
3D animation to a point where hyper-realism doesn’t surprise us anymore. The gap between capturing and creating reality is a very narrow one, and discerning the physical from the digital can require a second or third assessment. ‘Phygital’ emerges as a term to describe this hybrid state.” With the advanced technology, artists can explore the limits of the materials, the textures and generally the aesthetics, pushing the creative frontiers of the digital technology. And continue: “In their final form, products can be
located in any environment, real or imagined, without travel or studio expenses. Beyond mockups, digital-only furniture, fashion and beauty collections – made for our virtual identities – are becoming popular on Instagram.” This study seeks to categorize the different types of a phygital artwork that vary from,
only-digital, to semi-digital and the real phygital artifact. As the phygital object is a new subject that constantly changes, the following categorization is based on personal examination in order to foster further investigation.
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The first category can be described as the . It is the most digital one, where all the work is positioned and represented in a digital space. The artifacts are 3D objects made by specialized design programs, which are placed in an environment, also formed as a 3D scenery. The objects and the scenery work in a harmonic way and the rendered result resembles a real space. However, there is always an element of imagination, as some artifacts look like real ones but their attributes seem unreal. Another important factor is that these rendered, newage, still-life images, lack of human presence. To illustrate an example, in a rendered 3D scenery there can be found phygital artifacts that defy gravity, or have an unusual texture, shape, material or form in the space. There is a comprehension of the digitalization of the scenery but, simultaneously, it prevails the familiar and intimate sense of a real-physical space.
Rendered Phygital artifact
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The artist is a self-taught artist and designer with no architectural background, who practices this form of phygital production, introducing a new movement in 3D art. The exposition of his work on Instagram as @teaaalexis, increased even more his popularity, counting over 197K followers by now. From the beginning, his practices started on the platform of Instagram, where he quickly got a major online attention and various job offers. The award-winning online magazine IGNANT interviewed @teaaalexis exploring his aesthetics and this new trend. “It is a movement that is
changing rapidly; the evolution of 3D art seems as influenced by advances in technology as it is by algorithmic changes to social media”.
photo of @teaaalexis account in Instagram
A. Christodoulou mentions escapism as an inspirational element that led him to create “spaces which are devoid
of human presence; surreal celebrations of light and calm sets in a world where time does not exist.” There is a subtle difference between these imaginary
places and the real world, but in the interview he highlights that his non-architectural background liberates him from the typical expected assembling. He also refers to the architectural problem of an honest presentation between the rendered space and the built one. The renders, rarely achieve to resemble the inside perspective qualities of the actual built space. The 3D ceiling and walls need to be detached, in order to get a wider and illuminated view. “It is precisely their lack of reality,
or potential for translation to reality, that makes them so compelling”, although the artists considers that they would not be well translated in the real world. 69
Artwork by @teaaalexis
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In the category Rendered Pygital artifact can be placed the work of the Berlin-based visual artist . Most of his work consists of renderings of reallooking sculptures. By the name @mikaelchristianstrobek on Instagram with 24.4K followers by now, exposes on Instagram these abstract and minimal sculptures, which are placed in sceneries that mimic an abstract exhibition design hall with white walls and floor made out of concrete or wood. His works are in scale with the corresponding space, with materials − like metal− that seem real. The viewer can rarely distinguish the truth between the digital and the physical form, as the unreal factor cannot be easily noticeable. The artist, through his work titles, keeps a nondisclosure position about the materiality of his work. However, in his Instagram profile, in the suggested highlight area below his bio, declares that “the art works
shown are conceptual renderings that seeks to redefine artistic production in connection to architectural contexts”.
photo of @mikaelchristianstrobek account in Instagram
More interesting is his statement on his official website declaring that: “These visualizations serve as proof
of concept and are meant to be negotiated into a given architectural context, giving each of my projects a ‘birthplace’ to which they are temporally bound. Working in this fashion ties my physical production to the interested party and keeps me from producing for production‘s sake.”
“PS/ BT/ GS”, artwork by @mikaelchristianstrobek
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Moving forward, the second category can be described as , where the dual existence of the real and the digital identity is clear. The physical artifact and the rendered presentation of it, have the exact same attributes like form, color, shape, size, texture, etc. The digital side of the phygital artifact works as a mirror, a platonic form, a real reflection of the phygital artifact. There is a constant dialogue between the fluid existence of this type of work, where a change of a characteristic in the real world, demands the digital repercussions. The artist often goes back and questions the existence of the phygital object in the real world, testing the most suitable and contemporary material. The digital presentation can exist as a rendered image alone, in a natural, simple, almost absent scenery-background, or it can take an Augmented Reality form and be embedded through a smartphone screen, in whichever physical space.
Cloned Phygital artifact
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The digital artist and creative director explores this category of phygital artifact through different practices. The platform i-D, a cultural magazine and website, interviewed the artist who has collaborated with famous brands, creating a unique storytelling between real and imaginary feeling. Under the name @luhardcastle on Instagram, with 7K followers by now, she displays her artwork on Instagram, where an interplay of digital, physical and AR filters exist. In her interview, she highlights the importance of the touch and the texture, especially of the fabric. She experiments with natural techniques and, through advanced digital programs, transforms the real into something digital and moving. It is an alternating growth where in every state of the artifact, there is something new to be challenged and explored.
photo of @luhardcastle account in Instagram
In Hardcastle’s interview, the phygital attribute is verified as her digital work escapes from the flat image and obtains more physical sensation. Between realism and surrealism, it always strives for visual illusions which have the element of surprise, of the new and exciting. The use of technology heightens the sensation at the point where it seems that the digital representation can be felt and touched. The out-ofthis-world textures, shapes, and materials finally come to the real world with a physical form. Specifically, she participated in Milan’s Design Week, occasioned by the celebration of Frame Magazine’s “What’s The Matter?” Exhibition, with an artwork named “PHYGITAL OBJECTS”, where she translated her rendered objects into physical sculptures. 75
SCULPTURE & PUBLIC INSTALLATION, MILAN, 2016 A physical translation turning rendered digital objects into physical forms
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In continuation, the artwork of the Spanish artist suggests the interest in this duality of digital/real and the transition that happens from one medium to the other. Her work on her personal page and her Instagram page, @almudena_lobera with 3K followers by now, shows her personal reflections. In her website, it is found a highly interesting article of Isabel Abascal, about her solo exhibition “Stories” in Espacio CDMX. In her exhibition, she challenges the relationship between the observer and the observed artwork. Particularly, she created a device where 15 sculptures are circulating on a rail within an enclosed space, and they can be observed through specific openings. In the era of hypercommunication and hyper capitalism, she makes the spectator consider qualities like art, physical presence in space, time and Internet.
photo of @almudena_lobera account in Instagram
“Subtly connecting classical sculpture with new technologies and still-life painting with computer programs, Almudena Lobera constructs a disturbing and, as usual, mysterious narrative. Just as watching an Instagram story makes us feel like we are peeking into someone’s private life, so does watching Stories, a piece which allows us to spy the artist’s inner thoughts. Thoughts which we will probably feel compelled to share on our social-media.” (Isabel Abascal)
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Almudena Lobera, Stories #04, Layer Mask, 2020.
In continuation and still on the second category, it is important to mention the existence of the phygital artifact specifically on Instagram. As mentioned before Instagram has introduced new tools of presentation where it can be noticed a different type of narration. A phygital object can exist with the form of an image or a video in one’s Instagram account. However, despite the power of the tecno-image, new tools have made their appearance lately, like the Augmented Reality filter masks. This type of filter masks, starting from simple moving stickers, have undergone a tremendous progress, blending successfully the reality with the imaginary. Filter masks trace faces or surfaces and can manipulate them differently, distorting the viewing image or adding extra elements. This offers a whole new perspective on the world of art, as the participation, the collaboration and the expansion of the viewership intensifies, making it possible for new possibilities to occur, for both the artist and the public. 78
The French artist exhibits her work through a well curated professional account by the name @johwska with 681K followers by now. She also has a personal account (@jjjjjjjjohanna) with 4K followers, for her more personal moments. In her professional account, she writes on the description the phrase “There is no filter without you”. She gained her popularity by being one of the first designers who created a filter mask that went viral, the Beauty 3000. After that, she used the filter masks as a way to communicate her physical artworks and collaboration. In her latest collaboration with the brand Services Généraux, she designed the “Augmented Senses”. This project is an investigation of a series of jewelery design, which also perform as wearable devices, having the ability to augment the human senses. With the creation of a specific filter mask, the digital representation of the jewelery, it was achieved an expanded viewership and an updated brand strategy.
photo of @johwska account in Instagram
The cloned phygital artifact introduces a more active participatory experience for the spectator, creating a more intimate and collaborative relationship between the artist and the public. With Instagram, the follower can individually use a filter which has a reference to the physical art object. In continuation, using a smartphone as a medium, the spectator can try a specific filter and then share it, spreading it rapidly to a larger audience. Consequently, this action makes the artwork go viral and the e-artist can increase dramatically his or her audience. 79
“Augmented Senses” is a series of jewellery which will also function as wearable devices, collaboration with SERVICES GÉNÉRAUX, 2020
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The third and final category is the sublime of the phygital spectrum, containing the physical and the digital sides working at the same time. This category can be named as . Here one phase cannot exist without the other and is always in an interdependent state. In this case, the phygital artifact can only be revealed with the insertion of a digital reading device. Therefore, an action on the real materialized devise causes a real-time reaction on the digitalized layer. The physical interaction of the user with the physical form of the phygital object − e.g a gesture, a movement, or a specific placement−, outreaches the digital remediated view on the reading device, causing an instant response.
artifact
Complementary Phygital
As mentioned above, this kind of phygital experience already exists via interactive and smart devices and the utilization of augmented reality technology. For example, a smart mirror in a shop can create a phygital experience, where the body works as the “real materialized devise”, experiencing the consequences on the reflected shelf. However, neither the body nor the mirror can be considered as phygital objects. All these elements all together, counting also the specific interaction space, produce a phygital experience.
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In the same field, another representative example of the spacial phygital experience is , a digital creative studio founded in 2016 by Cristóbal Baños (@cristobalbahe) and Diego Iglesias (@diegoiggo). On the website, the studio exhibit a variety of work, from “interactive spaces, web platforms, digital strategies, complex informational architectures, digital consultancy, curation of digital art and many other things.” On the project Salto Al Color, a phygital experience was created, combining spectators, musicians, lights and color. The installation used sensors that were capturing the movement of the artists and the pedestrians, creating patterns and colors that were changing in real-time by interacting with the bodies in the space.
photo of @hyperstudio.es account in Instagram
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interactive installation by HYPER STUDIO for the SPanish music group Amaral, 2019
Other examples are AR graffiti apps, like Street Tag, Tagd, Arfiti etc., where the physical world is converted to a digital canvas. In this case, the users can leave messages for other users and share images, messages, creating new collaborative works.
arfiti, application for augmented reality graffiti
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As far as the phygital object is considered, there are recent and still-in progress experimentations with augmented and interactive technologies. For example, the Canadian Software-as-a-Service (Saas) company , combines Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR) and Artificial Intelligence (AI). For educational reasons, the company designed an AR Chemistry experience. Three physical cards are placed on the table, representing a chemical substance, with each one having a characteristic QR figure. The QR enables the digital layer that can be viewed through a monitor. When the cards are being moved, the digital layers also interact, causing a real-time reaction, depicting the new chemical result that has been created from the chemical substances. The physical cards do not have the same meaning without the re-interpretation and re-mediation of their digital reading, therefore one part does not exist without the other.
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On complementary phygital objects, another example is the magazine , that created a phygital issue where the real printed magazine “came into life” through AR technology. In 2012 the Interactive Issue requested from their viewers to use an AR application, Blippar, which converted special QR codes into special edition film videos. Moreover, another interesting feature was that the magazine proposed to the users to share images of themselves, in order to put them on the cover of the magazine. This type of interaction helped the publication increase its viewership, integrating the user’s participation, who was viewed as a celebrity for the time being.
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An example in the world of art could be the work “Faces [On] Display” by the visual artist . He designed an Interactive Installation during his Artist Residency at Adobe as an Augmented Reality experiment. The installation uses the visitor’s face to produce video art. The projection of the video art is generated on the wall of the exhibition space with the use of a reading device placed in the middle of the space, which recognizes facial gestures. The artist points out that: “Because these new digital experiences
are spatial and interactive, it totally changes the grammar of the previous art forms. We need to discover the new grammar.”
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WHERE IS THE PHYGITAL ARTIFACT SITUATED?
AR exhibitions and more 90
If everyone can personally view and experience a phygital artwork, the question that rises is, where is the phygital object placed and particularly in what kind of virtual and physical spaces can it be found. As the artifact exists in a hybrid state, both in physical and digital world, it is noticeable that the same can occur with the spaces that can be exposed. Therefore, as it is clear that physical objects exist in spaces of the real world, where can the digital representations be found at the present moment?
On the one hand, there are physical exhibitions hosted by museums, which exhibit post digital artwork that has been expressed in a physical form. In that case, the viewer can experience up-close and in-scale the peculiar and strange shapes of an artwork that is being made by real and advanced materials. An example of this is the exhibition Out of hand: Materializing the Post- digital, that took place in MAD museum (Museums of Arts and Design) in New York, in 2013-2014. In the introduction of the catalog, the curators describe the following: Out of Hand: Materializing the Postdigital, examines trends in contemporary digital design and fabrication. The exhibition features 21st century artworks created through the use of technology as a tool; featured artists employ advanced methods of computer-assisted production, also referred to as digital fabrication. The exhibition focuses on works created between 2005 and 2013. 2005 was a moment when advances in 3D modeling, 3D scanning and 3D printing made it possible to design and fabricate objects that previously could only exist as digitally rendered concepts. The term postdigital does not refer to the end of the epoch; rather it refers to the period after the beginning of the age of digital design.
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One of the themes for discussion of the exhibition was the importance of the designer’s hand in the artistic process. Despite the fact that new digital methods have overwhelmed the designer’s life, like 3D printing, CNC (Computer Numerically Controlled) machining, digital knitting, laser cut methods and many more, the designer still values the handcraft methods. The collaboration of digital and crafts allows new forms, shapes and textures, which previously seemed just a product of the imagination. A new tendency of the “digital handmade” exists, combining traditional artisanal methods with digital ones. On the other hand, there are virtual exhibitions which can host any kind of digitalized art. Andrea Bandelli in his article “Virtual spaces and Museums” in the book Museums in the Digital Age of Ross Parry, defines that: “When we talk about ‘virtual museums’, we usually think of websites, electronic networks and 3-D graphics… But the adjective ‘virtual’ takes on more significance if we associate it with the visitor’s experience rather than just a specific technology or a way to represent reality” (148). The virtual exhibitions can host digital representations of existing artworks, or artworks that are by their nature immaterial.
From white gallery cubes, to black box spaces, to on-line platforms, that is to say, from physical space to cyberspace, how is the digital artwork conditioned?
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“Space does not always equate with place”
(Graham, Cook, 2010, 58). The technological development of older times, such as telecommunications (mail art), fax machines and other, led to the reconsideration of the space that hosts immaterial artifacts. A cyberspace
gallery has no time restrictions and usually can be accessed easily, with the only condition of Internet connection. Digital technologies can expand the exchange
of ideas and flourish collective awareness, as more and more people become more independent of the place and the time of the access to information. However, a lot of people can be excluded from this opportunity due to their economic or educational status, race or geographic region. The same stands for the cyberspace, as it seems like a free abstract space but the reality is that it can be measured. “While cyberspace per se is an exclusive realm, its production depends on the material space beyond its interfaces. Cyberspace is real estate in terms of data space on computer disks and in mainframes, personal space in seats in front of computer workstations, frequencies on the broadcast spectrum, satellite space off which to bounce signals, and room in the bandwidth of fiber optic cables that global corporations struggle among themselves to own and control.” (Margaret Morse, Virtualities: Television, Media Art, and Cyberculture, quoted in the book Museums in a digital age, by Ross Parry)
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Early efforts of digitalized space can be found in 1993, with the Microsoft Art Gallery an educational and interactive guide for the London National Gallery, published by Microsoft. After that, a lot of museums released virtual editions of exhibitions with CD-ROMs, or curated their websites by exhibiting an online art gallery. From a simple slideshow, a new user-friendly interface is constructed that invites the virtual visitor to a new cyberspace. Moreover, another form of a virtual exhibition that museums present is a 360 degree image, where the spectator is immersed to the photographic representation of the existing halls. From static images a shift to well directed videos was made, where the camera intents to give even more exaggerating frames. An example is the Whitestone gallery’s Little Fables group exhibition, where the camera emphasized on the space dynamics, rather that the artwork itself.
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Margaret Morse underlines that: The very notion of immersion suggests a spiritual realm, an amniotic ocean, where one might be washed in symbols and emerge reborn. Virtual landscapes can also figure as liminal realms of transformation, outside of the world of social limits and constraints, like the cave or sweat lodge, if only by reason of their virtuality—not entirely imaginary nor entirely real, animate but neither living nor dead, a subjunctive realm wherein events happen in effect, but not actually. (185) In the case of the digital existence of the artifact, it is important to mention the idea of the Imaginary Museum, or the Museum without walls, of André Malraux in 1947. André Malraux, a French art historian, philosopher and cultural politician, questioned the idea of the traditional role of the museum, at the same time when the photography as a medium started to prevail. His theory was not only about the exhibition of photographic reproductions of artworks, but the awareness and personal interest of the visitor, which creates an ideal collection of the work that he or she admires most. The wide range of art could not be hold in one unique universal museum, therefore one’s imagination, could create a specific place without boundaries, a Museum without walls, where many artworks could be represented. This imagined collection, which can be found in places, books, the television or the internet, does not replace the role of the typical museum but helps expand its experience.
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If photography triggered the concept of the Museé Imaginaire, what can be expected with the revolution advances that internet has brought? How tools in the spectrum of mixed realities can create and provide the personal imagined collection of each one?
Many museums have established their digital existence for many years now. Personal devices, like mobiles or computers, have contributed to the creation of these “personal museum moments”, by expanding a certain experience outside the physical space of a museum and its hours of operation. However, as Konstantinos Arvanitis claims in his article, “Museums outside walls: mobile phones and the museum in the everyday”, these kinds of digital practices may diminish the idea of the museum and its completeness as cultural institution. Arvanitis continues: “If we cannot really have ‘museums without walls’, we can at least work towards ‘museums outside walls’.” (Parry, 175) As mentioned before, virtual exhibitions are not a new trend and they count with several years of digital and online presence. However, in the last months, the virtual exhibitions have seen an immense increase, due to the global pandemic. During social isolation, when the interaction with the world was through mobile phones and laptops, the usage of social media helped stay connected and informed with all the latest updates. Ignoring and overpassing the fear of online overdose, the devices were the only means to communicate and connect with “a kind of reality”. The digital world, its cyberspace and stories, seemed safer and more appealing than the real world. The COVID-19 changed the ways that art is exhibited, challenging art institutions and curators to find virtual spaces to exhibit artworks. Especially people in the sector of design, art and curation, noticed this new “obligation” to the digital existence of the artwork, at the time when physical visits
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to a museum, art galleries and fairies were restrained. New digital showrooms and 3D exhibition spaces inundated the quarantine days, trying to use the technological advances in order to create a user-friendly experience. The latest months, under these specific circumstances of obliged distance, the organised virtual exhibitions that were experienced in two forms. The one form, at the early stages of the pandemia, was the combination of a physical art event with its expansion in the digital world. Secondly, when the restraints became even harder, only-digital expositions arose, experimenting with new technology means. At this point is important to repeat that these observations were made through the usage of social media and specifically by personal observation on Instagram. While being in quarantine in Madrid, I started noticing the growing tendency towards digital exhibitions and the usage of new tools and especially certain tools that exist exclusively on social media. As my interest was growing, my investigation likewise started growing, following more relevant accounts. However,
it is undeniable that the amount of examples is just a small coverage that is based on personal examination and excludes many figures of the art, design and curatorial world.
To begin with, an example of the first form of virtual exhibition during the Covid-19 is the one of Art Basel, an international art fair in Basel, Switzerland, Miami Beach, Florida and Hong Kong, which in March 2020 launched a new digital initiative, the Online Viewing Rooms. Specifically, in parallel to the shows, a digital platform was created in order to expand the presented works and the access of the audience. Initially, this digital platforms were not intended to replace the physical experience, but rather to allow gallerists to showcase additional curated exhibitions of work, not presented at the art fair, like the cancelled show of Art Basel Hong Kong 2020. The press release of the Institution declares: 97
Art Basel’s Online Viewing Rooms will allow collectors to browse thousands of works, searching by galleries, artists, and medium, and directly contact the gallery with sales inquiries. Like the fairs, the showrooms will begin with a preview, accessible only to VIP cardholders, followed by several days when the show rooms will be open to the public.
Online Art Viewing Room , first edition, semi- digital, Art Basel
The second edition of the Online Viewing Rooms in June 2020, was digital only and accessible by the website and the Art Basel App. The global director, Mark Spiegler, through the official Instagram page of @Art Basel, introduces how the second version of the Online Viewing Rooms.2 works, where beyond than 4,000 artworks were presented by more than 280 galleries. In the official page of Art Basel, Simon Wang, the director of Shanghai-based gallery Antenna Space, explains that this initiative gave the opportunity to many young and unknown until now artists, to communicate their work and their background stories. Additionally, Zoom tours were arranged by some curators, where everyone could join by registering in advance, explore the personal preferences of the curators and participate in Q&A sessions. Online Art Viewing Room 2, only digital, Art Basel
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Especially during the lockdown period, many types of only-digital exhibitions were presented. In an only-digital exhibition, a specific cyberspace is created, representing a typical exhibition space, with human-scale dimensions and a variety of exhibition halls. This replica of real life space holds artworks that seem to be in scale to the proportions of the corresponding exhibition hall.
For instance, @buubuustudio founded by the two Spanish artists, (@trivi_town) and (@carloszorromono), designed a specific virtual space which is called BUNKER, an artist-run, noncommercial platform. By the description in the Instagram post of the official Instagram page of @buubuustudio: “Bunker project space is a non-commercial, artist-run project space located in the net. The mission of the space is to provide artists and curators with a virtual space for experimentation and development. We hope this encourages people to work in this atipical space, leading to artist-curated projects, and exhibitions that wouldn’t otherwise find a fitting exhibition venue during the pandemic.” The Sinister Figures was the first exhibition at Bunker with the participation of a variety of artists and a video game aesthetic. The visitor by entering to a web browser, seemed like the protagonist of a video game that could tour in the different exhibition halls and view art by the form of painting or sculpture. 99
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In the same category is the project The Wørmhole, a VR website that can be also viewed from a desktop. This project that was published in the Instagram account of @designmattersdk, a digital design conference in Copenhagen, was made by the @cisorstudio. The Wørmhole, a cyberspace with post- digital aesthetics lets the viewer have a round tour from his laptop, or have a different experience through VR glasses. The website works as a virtual exhibition space that hosts a different digital artist every month and also works as an informative and artistic platform that displays interesting articles about new technologies.
Article in the online platfrom Medium, about the project The Wørmhole
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VR website The Wormhole
In continuation, new forms of cyberspace showed up, that escape the norms of a static web page. In this case, the user is not only moving into a virtual environment, but also interacts with it, by living his or her mark and impressions. This type of web design promotes the sharing experience and knowledge. An interesting project of this type, is the one that was organized by a group of students of MaCA (Master en Comunicación Arquitectonica) of the Higher Technical School of Architecture of Madrid. The students of MaCA commented about the “new normality” that people have to face from now on due to the pandemia. Through a series of small events in May 2020, there was an attempt to approach the concept of encounter. In the third event called, Politics of Virtuality, the team examined the ways that the virtual self can inhabit a virtual place, by creating and curating a video game-like environment, where every participant is a unique avatar. The 6 female guests, Lucia Tahan,, Laura Tabarés, Elena Castro Córdoba, Blanca Martínez, Paula Jiménez, Lara Bañares, coordinated a debate about virtuality, that finally produced an ethnography that showed the opinions, relationships and conversations between the attendees of this virtual event.
Políticas de la virtualidad, trans escalada, MaCA, ETSAM
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“In the same ways that hypertext removes the limitations of the printed page, the post-information age will remove the limitations of geography. Digital living will include less and less dependence upon being in a specific place at a specific time, and the transmission of place itself will start to become possible.” (Negroponte, 1995, 165) On this wise, an updated type of virtual exhibition made its appearance in the past few months, which made possible the transportation of a space, the AR exhibition. The AR exhibition is overlaying on the actual existing environment in real time, with the mobile as a medium. That is to say, one can tour and walk in an AR exhibition, by moving in one’s physical space. The AR exhibition can be found by the form of an Instagram filter, and can be experienced without any extra special equipment, like VR glasses, but only with the use of a mobile phone. This form of exhibition
tries to escape the institutionalism of a typical museum, aiming for the democratizing of art and curation. However, many Institutions have collaborated with
AR companies to create extended experiences in the space of the museum. Nonetheless, the AR exhibition as an Instagram filter is an innovation that was developed especially during and after the pandemia, along with the technological development of the AR technology. Huge tech companies started developing this new tendency, with Spark AR, a Facebook- owned company being on the spotlight, allowing everyone to create his or her own AR Filter. On the official Instagram page of @sparkarcreators, there can be found tutorials, tips, but also promotion of creators with successful AR filters. In a specific post on June 18th, Spark AR introduces the artist @doddz and his creation @virtualartspace and explains: 103
“When the pandemic hit and made art galleries inaccessible, UK-based artist @doddz created his own with Spark AR. @virtualartspace and The Gallery is an immersive #AR experience accessible by anyone, from anywhere, right on Instagram. The first art exhibit on display is a series of paintings depicting the struggles, emotions and intention of the Black Lives Matter movement.” Anyone with acceess on Instagram could visit the exhibition by entering to a specific link in the bio of @virtualartspace or directly by visiting the section where the filters are promoted.
The Virtualart Space was introduced in June as the world’s first Instagram exhibition, a virtual art gallery with the form of an AR filter which had more than 50.000 visitors within its first 48 hours release. Anyone could tour the gallery and make an optional purchase of the artworks, while the earning would split between donations and funds. In this cyberspace most of the artworks belonged to the second categorization, the rendered phygital artifact, as the digital representation of a real painting that could be viewed in- scale in the cyberspace. Moreover, before purchasing an artwork, the visitor could have a free trial of its AR filter form, that could be tried and placed in- scale in a preferred vertical area of the visitor’s physical space. For some artworks, the artist @doddz embedded extra AR filters that animate the physical artwork.
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CONCLUSIONS
The phygital artifact opens a new dialogue between human, art, and technology 106
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“Like a force of nature, the digital age cannot be denied or stopped. It has four very powerful qualities that will result in its ultimate triumph: decentralizing, globalizing, harmonizing, and empowering.� (Negroponte, 229)
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Evidently, every new generation becomes even more digital than the previous one, updating the norms and activities of everyday life. Nowadays, as the digital layers are constantly interfering in the physical world, our perception of reality is constantly changing as well. The media devices that make possible the physical-to-digital transfer, are becoming even more discreet progressively. For western type societies, where the majority of the people are able to connect and participate online, these devices are not considered as just an accessory, but almost as a vital necessity.
“Artists will come to see the Internet as the world’s largest gallery for their expressions and as a means of disseminating them directly to people.”
(Negroponte, 224) As said in this thesis , the contemporary artist needs to -and does- find ways to adapt to the demands of the new technologies, while the younger generation of artists innovates, by taking advantage of the new digital tools. The “e-artist” as we called it, must now create and curate an online identity in order to manifest himself or herself, finding other ways for exposure, beyond the institutionalism of museums and galleries. The online artistic practices have allowed a larger viewership of one’s artwork, and most importantly, the conveyance of the artistic process. In social media, the artist needs to take the risk to actually become the artwork;by the new phenomenon of extimacy, many backstage and private artistic practices are now being exposed to the public view. Moreover, social media and especially Instagram, provided to the artist new communication tools in order to construct a new narrative identity. Beyond simple photos and videos, the artists are using the interactive and participatory tools, such as Instagram Stories, Live, Polls, Q&As, Emoji sliders and finally AR tools, with the form of filters. The indefinable public has empowered the new digital participatory art and involvement, leading towards to new perspectives, cultural democracy, and social engagement. Consequently, the Web practices led to a new tendency of amateurization and selfdesign, where the innovation is now being democratized. 109
Although the new possibilities are numerous, the Instagrammism can also provoke consequences for the artist, the artwork and the place that the latter is being exhibited. Almost a decade ago, the influence of Instagram affected numerous exhibition spaces and museums, which slowly integrated or redesigned special spots for Instagram-worthy moments. Now, a specially designed exhibition space can be foundto one’s smartphone, as an AR exhibition. Undoubtedly, this personalized mobile experience is not comparable to the physical visit to an exhibition and is lacking the virtues of experiencing the artwork live with all senses. However, it can be argued that this online space for art or any other type of digital exhibition, permits the dis-institutionalization of art and its liberation from the physical constrains of space and time. By all means, we might argue that the hyper-reality experienceslack guidance; it is still an ongoing project that needs further investigation. Even though the art may be liberated from the marketing logic of the art institutions, the new economies of the online world may eventually lead to the capitalization of the self of the artist. In the new “attention economy” whatever seems liberated, is counted in likes and followers. This classification constructs new criteria that are beyond talent and capabilities and sometimes responds to the popular opinion. In 2016, the episode Nosedive of the series Black mirror, depicted a dystopian scenario where a society was constructed by one’s evaluation on social media. Although this is only a sci-fi series, the captivation by social media still rises concerns about the future of the online society. All in all, in this “hyper-everything” age, the “transhuman” strives to grow −via technology− beyond the actual human limits. This fusion of the digital and physical world affects all sectors of life. Many post- digital and post-internet artists combine physical with digital techniques, reflecting on new arising concerns. Relevant artistic practices that have also been a serious investigation material for this thesis, are extremely recent; they are profoundly depended on a cutting- edge technology that constantly evolves and changes, according to the latest developments.
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In this thesis, the term “phygital” describes in a way this new hyper-world. This neologism was “initially used in the field of marketing to describe an “interactive experience for a user, connecting the digital and the physical world in a certain space, with the use of technology”. After the “phygital experience”, the phygital object arrived as a new term that describes objects that overpass the restrictions of the physical world, regarding aspects of material, space or other natural forces, while they still maintain a reference to their physical existence. Although the phygital object has also an imaginative identity, it still intends to resemble reality. The “mixed reality”, using the smartphone as a medium, made the phygital object a new ontology, accessible to anyone on the Internet. This thesis has examined the phygital object as a phygital artifact; it seemed as the most adequate and suitable term that could describe and explain certain practices of the post-digital and post- internet art production and exposure. Although this neologism is yet rarely used from artists and art critics, this research supports the use of the term “phygital” and aims to contribute to a new description of a new form of this new type of artifact. The digital layer that covers today’s western life, has given new dimensions and possibilities to the physical artifact, augmenting its identity. However, the digital state by itself is not
sufficient;artists regularly return to the physical artifact, creating a constant dialogue between the two states. Within a spectrum of real,
semi-digital
and only- digital state,
the phygital artifact was classified in three possible alternatives as:
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The Rendered Phygital Artifact
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The Cloned Phygital Artifact
2
The Complementary Phygital Artifact
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This personal intention of classification intents to illuminate this new ontology, understand and interpret its practice and question its future potential, not only for the artist/designer, but also for the viewer/user.
From the artistic perspective, the phygital artifact has liberated the artist from material constraints and unnecessary over-production. This new type of artifact looks like it could be an actual, real object, while it can exist beyond time and physical space. In times of environmental awareness or lockdown periods, the phygital artifact can thrive as a portal to an alternative reality. Some may argue about the “fakeness” of that digital shadow of the phygital artifact;however as societies are evolving, humans have been familiarized with “the artificial” as part of today’s life. Thus, the question of the boundaries between the real and the digital does not cause amazement anymore, as what prevails is the experience. Regarding the latter statements, it is worth mentioning here the “Ultra Violet Production House” project, by the artists Joshua Citarella and Brad Troemei. UV Production House is an online store in Etsy, an American e-commerce website where designers and artists can promote and sell their crafts. The absurdity of this project lies on the presentation of edited images of potential or hypothetical art products, when finally the artists provide the collectors with do-it-yourself material kits and prefabricated works. The artists do not have material expense nor studio rent as their work consists exclusively in designing the digital representation of the artwork. The collector receives the pieces of the artwork and follows specific instructions in order to produce the physical artifact, which resembles its digital representation. Therefore, collectors and curators become fabricators without further coordination or personal communication with the artists, but only with 113
the purchase of a kit in the Etsy platform. The artist Joshua Citarella underlines the vast potential of the Internet and this new art-on-demand case in his interview to the online platform Artspace:
“It’s a way for people to participate in a bazaar and experimental project. And it’s a very convenient way to ship work! It doesn’t require a lot of coordination—we don’t need an entire gallery team of assistants to do it. It’s also a way to compensate artists for their participation in a show. If I do a show at a commercial gallery, the compensation is the chance to sell the piece. I put it their retail space for the opportunity to sell it, not the guarantee. So the artist fronts the material cost and essentially assumes the risk in producing the object. Who knows if they sell or don’t? With our model, the piece sells before the work even gets shipped out, before any materials are even purchased.”
Aged Aluminum Bench, by UV Production House, Walnut inlayed wood plank in Mac G5 towers, $5,000.00 114
As time changes and technology advances, the tangible materials for a physical space are under consideration. The physical and the digital combination create a new dynamic for art productions, while challenging the relation between the artist, the artifact, and the spectator. As the phygital artifact is placed between the physical and the digital, there is always a concern rumbling around: Will it be possible for all the aspects of the artifact to be reflected in its digital representation? Could this artifact be fully resonated in the real world? However, it may be precisely in this “place in between� where the most glitter is. After all, where could the most interesting aspect of it all be found, if not in what is being lost?
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More More is yet yet to to come come is to our our hands hands or or to (only) (only) on our our screens. screens. on
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A big thank you from the bottom of my heart to my tutors, Maria and Natasa, who both helped and supported me develop the idea of the phygital artifact, dedicating many hours on their screens. My biggest love goes to my parents who support me and are there for me, no matter the distance. Special thanks goes to my close friends who accompanied me this strange year, Kostis, Lucila, Vasilis, Melissa and Kiko, to my friends in Greece, and ofcourse a special thank you to @incognito chat. Ευχαριστώ! <3
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WORKS CITED
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14. Hayles N., Katherine. “How We Think: Digital Media and Contemporary Technogenesis.” Choice Reviews Online, vol. 50, no. 06, 2013, doi:10.5860/choice.50-3050. 121
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19. Jung, Heekyoung, and Erik Stolterman. “Digital Form and Materiality.” Proceedings of the 7th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction Making Sense Through Design - NordiCHI ‘12, 2012, doi:10.1145/2399016.2399115. 20. Krauss, Rosalind. “The Cultural Logic of the Late Capitalist Museum.” October, vol. 54, 1990, p. 3., doi:10.2307/778666. 21. LA VIDA: UN RELATO EN BUSCA DE NARRADOR. textosontologia.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/ricoeur-la-vida.pdf. 22. “Lev Manovich.” Lev Manovich - Post-Media Aesthetics, manovich.net/index.php/projects/post-media-aesthetics. 23. 2019.
Lovink, Geert. Sad by Design: on Platform Nihilism. Pluto Press,
24. Manovich, Lev. “Instagram and Contemporary Image.” Academia.edu - Share Research, www.academia.edu/35501327/Instagram_and_Contemporary_Image. 25. Manovich, Lev. “The Aesthetic Society: or How I Edit My Instagram 1.” Data Publics, 2020, pp. 192–212., doi:10.4324/978042919651513. 26. McLuhan, Marshall, and W. Terrence. Gordon. Understanding Media: the Extensions of Man. Gingko Press, 2015.
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35. Seyfi, Murat, and Ayda Uzunçarşılı Soydaş. “Instagram Stories From The Perspective Of Narrative Transportation Theory.” The Turkish Online Journal Of Design, Art And Communication, vol. 7, no. 1, 2017, pp. 47–60., doi:10.7456/10701100/005. 36. Sibilia, Paula. La Intimidad Como Espectáculo. FCE - Fondo De Cultura Económica. 37. Sobre El Arte Post-Lnternet - Juan Martín Prada. juanmartinprada.net/imagenes/martin_prada_sobre_el_arte_postinternet.pdf. 38. Stories We Tell Our Selfies. 25qt511nswfi49iayd31ch80-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/papers/ acah2017/ACAH2017_35043.pdf. 39. Tellería, Ana Serrano. “Between the Public and Private in Mobile Communication.” Taylor & Francis, Taylor & Francis, 14 June 2017, www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781315399300. 40. Wang, Xiangyu, and Marc Aurel. Schnabel. Mixed Reality in Architecture, Design and Construction. Springer, 2010. 123
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Appendix 1. Abstract and Methodology Image 1 Amandacosco. “Fashion Brands Selling Virtual Goods.” Electric Runway, 28 Apr. 2020, electricrunway.com/fashion-brands-selling-virtual-goods/.
Image 2 Lombardo, Giorgia. “How Will AR And Other New Technologies Impact Societies?” Medium, DeMagSign, 26 June 2020, medium.com/demagsign/how-will-arand-other-new-technologies-impact-societies-384e4ca4975f.
Image 3 Pasquale, Frank. “The Black Box Society.” 2015, doi:10.4159/harvard.9780674736061.
Image 4 https://www.instagram.com/sophia.docc/
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2. The perception of art in the era of Internet Image 1 Martineau, Paris. “The WIRED Guide to Influencers.” Wired, Conde Nast, www. wired.com/story/what-is-an-influencer/.
Video
Image 2 https://www.entrepreneur.com/slideshow/302463
3. The narrative identity of the e- artists Image 1 Russell, Kyle. “Here’s How The Movie ‘Her’ Created The Most Believable Vision Of Our Future Yet.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 30 Dec. 2013, www.businessinsider.com/her-presents-a-realistic-tech-future-2013-12?IR=T. HER | Are These Feelings Real? , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ij0ZmgG6wCA&ab_channel=AnnapurnaPictures
Video
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Image 2 “Cat Yu Graphic Design.” Cat Yu Senior Thesis, www.cyuself.com/thesis.html.
Image 3 Damien Hirst, Photo with Painting, https://www.instagram.com/p/B76FzncnBfp/
Image 4 Damien Hirst, Spin Painting, https://www.instagram.com/p/B_xFv9zHF5-/
Video
Image 5 Eler, Alicia. “Amalia Ulman’s Instagram Performance Exposed the Flaws in Selfie Culture.” CNN, Cable News Network, 29 Mar. 2018, edition.cnn.com/style/article/amalia-ulman-instagram-excellences-perfections/index.html. https://www.instagram.com/amaliaulman/
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Image 6 Editorial, Artsy, and Eli Hill. “4 Artists Share Their Social Media Strategies.” Artsy, 10 Apr. 2019, www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-4-artists-share-tips-instagram-grow-art-practice.
4.
The platform of Instagram as an artistic medium
Image 1 Morby, Alice. “Instagram Scraps Retro Logo for More ‘Modern’ Design.” Dezeen, 11 May 2016, www.dezeen.com/2016/05/11/instagram-new-logo-graphic-design-camera-rainbow/.
Image 2 Mallya, Deepak. “The Idea of Self Portrait in the Age of Social Media - A Perfect Picture.” Medium, Treemouse, 26 Apr. 2019, medium.com/treemouse/the-perfect-picture-54461d5dfafb.
Image 3 King, Steph. “From Bambi Pose To Finger Mouthing: Instagram’s Most Ridiculous Posing Fads.” Stylight, Stylight, 21 Apr. 2017, www.stylight.com/Magazine/Lifestyle/Bambi-Pose-Finger-Mouthing-Instagram-Posing-Fads/.
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Image 4 Almudena Lobera, Contemporary mood, https://www.instagram.com/p/By2g-zImfk/
Image 5 https://tenor.com/view/answer-my-text-clicking-hands-click-click-itgif-17847307 Video
5.The rise of mixed realities in the post- internet and post- digital era Image 1 “Marisa Olson.” Are.na, www.are.na/marisa-olson.
Image 2 “Image Objects.” NET ART ANTHOLOGY: Image Objects, anthology.rhizome.org/ image-objects.
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Image 3 Windows XP - Solitaire Ending, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiGT_7Dgq0I&ab_channel=peetieyou
Image 4 Hyper Reality, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJg02ivYzSs&t=110s&ab_ channel=KeiichiMatsuda
Image 2 Wingfield, Nick, and Mike Isaac. “Pokémon Go Brings Augmented Reality to a Mass Audience.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 11 July 2016, www. nytimes.com/2016/07/12/technology/pokemon-go-brings-augmented-realityto-a-mass-audience.html.
mage 3 Link to Instagram filter, https://www.instagram.com/ar/560970341279129/
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Image 4 Link to Instagram filter, , https://www.instagram.com/ar/2363258460575414/
Video
1. In search for the phygital artifact Image 1 Through The Fire And Flames 100% Expert Guitar Hero 3 . https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=cHRfbiwdheg&ab_channel=GuitarHeroPhenom
Image 2 Nike House Of Innovation preview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eecmQ3xhlZ0&ab_channel=Engadget Alvarez, Edgar. “Nike’s New NYC Flagship Store Is Fueled by Its Mobile App.” Engadget, 6 Mar. 2020, www.engadget.com/2018/11/15/nike-house-of-innovation000-new-york-city/?guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cueW91dHViZS5jb20v.
Image 3 “Everyday Experiments: Redefining Technology in the Home.” SPACE10, 8 Sept. 2020, space10.com/project/everyday-experiments/. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yh-Hae7mQpE&ab_channel=SPACE10
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Image 4 SparkAR creators, https://www.instagram.com/p/B59AUpZBb4Q/
Image 5 “Over’s 2020 Design Trend #7 Phygital Objects.” Over’s 2020 Design Trend #7, www.madewithover.com/trends/phygital-objects.
Image 6 https://www.instagram.com/teaaalexis/
Image 7 “Alexis Christodoulou On The Evolution Of 3D Art Outside Of Instagram.” IGNANT, 9 Mar. 2020, www.ignant.com/2019/09/03/alexis-christodoulou-on-the-evolution-of-3d-art-outside-of-instagram/.
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Image 8 https://www.instagram.com/mikaelchristianstrobek/
Image 9 Strobek, Mikael. “Installations.” Mikaelstrobek, www.mikaelstrobek.com/installations.
Image 10 https://www.instagram.com/luhardcastle/
Image 11 “Sculpture & Public Installation.” Lucy Hardcastle Studio, lucyhardcastle.com/ phygital-objects/.
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Image 12 https://www.instagram.com/almudena_lobera/
Image 13 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PYoT_siLbo&feature=emb_title&ab_ channel=AlmudenaLobera
Image 14 https://www.instagram.com/johwska/?hl=el
Image 15 https://www.instagram.com/p/CBdZcZ7hNmH/
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Image 16 https://www.instagram.com/hyperstudio.es/
Image 17 Hyperstudio, “Amaral: Salto Al Color.” HYPER STUDIO, hyperstudio.es/en/project/ amaral-salto-al-color/.
Image 18 Arfiti, arfiti.app/.
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Image 19 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qi3h18wJJiI&ab_channel=VirQTech
Image 20 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oyst9sg9hEk&ab_channel=TotalFilm
Image 21 https://www.instagram.com/cbuyukberber/
Image 22 Büyükberber, Can. “Faces[on]Display.” Can Büyükberber, canbuyukberber.com/ facesondisplay.
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7. Where is the phygital artifact situated? Image 1 Microsoft Art Gallery 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8kvWqOkPN8&ab_channel=AldoComputers
Image 2 Courtauld Galleries Permanent Collection, courtauld-website-static-hosting. s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/vr_tour/indexv2.html?xml=room_07.xml.
Image 3 Sebastian Chaumeton ‘Little Fables’ at Whitestone Gallery Hong Kong Online Viewing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70lEaO4y_qY&ab_channel=WhitestoneGallery
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Image 4 Allan, Derek, and Name *. “André Malraux’s Imaginary Museum.” Apollo Magazine, 2 Apr. 2020, www.apollo-magazine.com/andre-malraux-museum-without-walls/.
Image 5 Frame Magazine, https://www.instagram.com/p/B-IQi3Wh1jq/
Image 6 “Will Online Art Viewing Rooms Survive Coronavirus?” Widewalls, www.widewalls.ch/magazine/online-viewing-rooms-art-galleries.
Image 7 buubuustudio, https://www.instagram.com/buubuustudio/
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Image 8 “BUNKER PROJECT SPACE: BY BUU BUU STUDIO.” BUNKER&nbsp; PROJECT SPACE, bunker.buubuustudio.com/bunker--project-space--video.html.
Image 9 Lombardo, Giorgia. “How Will AR And Other New Technologies Impact Societies?” Medium, DeMagSign, 26 June 2020, medium.com/demagsign/how-will-arand-other-new-technologies-impact-societies-384e4ca4975f.
Image 10 VR Magic, thewormhole.online/july2020/.
Image 11 “Escalada: Micro-Encuentro 3 - Trans-Escalada.” Trans, transescalada.com/ Trans-Escalada-Micro-encuentro-3.
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Image 12 Spark AR, https://www.instagram.com/sparkarcreators/
Image 13 Virtual Art Space, https://www.instagram.com/p/CCVl4p0BSAt/?igshid=ypfifptvzwrp
8.Coclusions Image 1 Personal collage
Image 2 “Aged Aluminum Bench.” UV Production House, www.uvproductionhouse.com/ shop/aged-aluminum-bench. Abrams, Loney. “The Artists Have Been Set Free: Post-Internet Star Joshua Citarella on How the Web Can Disrupt the Gallery System.” Artspace, 20 Dec. 2016, www.artspace.com/magazine/interviews_features/qa/joshua-citarellaon-how-the-web-can-liberate-artists-54460.
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